Tobacco usage rates vary a lot across Western Europe

As someone born and living in the United Kingdom, one thing I notice when visiting other countries in Western Europe is how much more common smoking is elsewhere.

This is not just my imagination; this anecdotal evidence is backed up by the data on tobacco usage.

In the chart, you can see the share of adults who say they currently use tobacco products (mostly cigarettes, but chewing tobacco or snus is also included) across a range of countries in Western Europe.

The differences are large. In France and Greece, around one-third of adults use tobacco, more than twice the rate in countries like Denmark, the UK, and Norway.

Given that smoking is one of the leading risk factors for disease burden and premature death, these differences matter a lot for public health.

Explore how tobacco usage rates compare in other parts of the world →

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Tobacco usage rates vary a lot across Western Europe” by Hannah Ritchie, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

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